By CHRISTINE LYNCH
For years, much has been said about replacing the two Cape Cod Canal highway bridges. The US Army Corps of Engineers, the overseers of the canal and bridges, released a major rehabilitation evaluation report back in April 2020. It left no doubt that replacing the two bridges is an essential priority. Now it looks as though government funding has been allocated. On August 27, US Senator Edward J. Markey said that, of the $8 billion in federal infrastructure funds that Massachusetts will receive, $1.1 billion will be dedicated to replacing and repairing bridges in Massachusetts, saying specifically, “like the Bourne and the Sagamore.” He noted that both bridges “are vital parts of the Cape’s economy and their way of life.”
Construction of the Bourne Bridge. Courtesy of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Cape Cod Canal Field Office.
These storied spans have been vital conduits for getting on and off Cape Cod since 1935, as anyone who lives here knows. Indeed, they were designed for 1930s vintage vehicles with considerably less daily traffic. Loaded 18-wheelers were not even imagined then. Neither bridge provides adequate pedestrian access or bike lanes. So necessary repairs have been needed, often grinding traffic to a crawl—as we also know well. Rather than doing further repair work, replacing these bridges makes good sense. Interestingly, this actually would be the second time the Bourne and Sagamore bridges were replaced.
Centuries before the current canal existed, explorers/visionaries, including Myles Standish, saw the possibility of connecting the Manomet River (later called Monument River) flowing by Buzzards Bay and the Scusset River on the Cape Cod Bay side. There were attempts to widen and join the waters, but it was difficult, costly work.
Still, people had to cross the waters between the mainland to and from the Cape. Ferries ran, but they weren’t the most practical solution. So, in 1911 and 1912, the original Bourne and Sagamore bridges were constructed. Wooden planks were used for the decking, and the Bourne Bridge also had trolley tracks. Each had two 80-foot cantilevered spans and, being drawbridges, they had to be raised to allow ships to pass under. This meant that when a vessel in the canal approached the bridge, it had to wait until the bridge was lifted fully. Anyone with knowledge of boating and swift currents can understand that this situation could be dangerous, and it did indeed lead to accidents.
Construction of the Bourne Bridge. Courtesy of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Cape Cod Canal Field Office.
The roadway approach to those bridges also proved a bit tricky for some early automobile drivers, with enough falling into the water. The original site of the Bourne Bridge was roughly a half-mile west of today’s bridge; the original Sagamore Bridge was a half-mile east of the existing bridge. Walking near those spots along the canal path early on a misty morning, with a certain play of light, you might imagine a Columbia Touring Car or a Sears Runabout Delivery Truck trundling onto one of the low spans.
Time marched on, and the Cape Cod Canal project was successfully completed in 1914. However, it wasn’t wide or deep enough to accommodate the ships needing to traverse it. Then, in 1928, the Army Corps of Engineers was given responsibility for the canal. They developed the canal into an impressive, world-renowned feature. To give an idea of how valuable this connector is for the shipping industry alone, it eliminates roughly 150 miles of shifting shoals and powerful currents from routes that had to circumnavigate the Cape. [Something to note: The original charter for the Army Corps of Engineers was signed by Thomas Jefferson in 1775.]
They also knew the bridges had to be replaced. In September 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the New Deal emergency relief funding that provided $4.4 million for canal improvements and new bridge construction. The Public Works Administration program approved the project working with the Army Corps of Engineers. Samantha Gray, park ranger with the Army Corps of Engineers for the Cape Cod Canal, noted that the bridges’ architectural design was the work of Ralph Adams Cram of Cram & Ferguson in Boston. Fay, Spofford and Thorndike, a Burlington-based engineering firm, drafted the technical specifications and supervised the projects’ construction. They chose two new sites specifically for their higher elevation over the previous approaches to the drawbridges.
Construction of the Bourne Bridge. Courtesy of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Cape Cod Canal Field Office.
Records show that these projects created 700 or so jobs during a time when people were desperate to find work. Construction began simultaneously on both new bridges on December 1, 1933. Ms. Gray said that teams worked in four shifts on both the mainland and Cape sides. She said the going pay rate was 50 cents per hour for unskilled labor and $1.20 for skilled labor. Putting it in perspective, $1 in 1930 is equivalent to $16.38 in 2021. Tragically, two people died, and many, many workers were injured.
These graceful arched suspension bridges now stand 2 ½ miles apart, bracketing the canal, and offer a 135-foot center clearance above mean high water for vessels passing below. The Sagamore Bridge spans 1,408 feet across and the Bourne spans 2,384 feet (how many Smoots is that?). The Bourne Bridge won the American Institute of Steel Construction’s Class “A” Award of Merit as “The Most Beautiful Bridge Built During 1934.” In 1938, the Sagamore Bridge was awarded the same honor.
The final tally for the Bourne Bridge’s cost was $1.6 million and the Sagamore’s was $1.4 million, in 1930 dollars. On June 22, 1935, a ceremony with 8,000 people attending marked the bridges’ dedication. Thousands of others lined the parade route, which went over both the newly opened bridges. (Being summer, it might have been the first traffic backup.)
Today, roughly 35 million vehicles pass over the bridges each year: about 18 million for the Sagamore and 17 million for the Bourne. These stately spans have welcomed visitors to the Cape and welcomed Cape Codders home. They served us all well for 86 years, but traffic numbers will continue to grow, making bridge replacements imperative.
To learn more about the history of the bridges, their future and the fascinating region along the canal, stop by the Visitors Center at 60 Ed Moffitt Drive in Sandwich. As park ranger Samantha Gray said, “I love all the history of the canal from the engineering to the natural surroundings. It’s dynamic, multilayered and really cool.”